Identification and Description of Feathers in Te Papa's Mäori Cloaks
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Tuhinga 22: 125–147 Copyright © Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (2011) Identification and description of feathers in Te Papa’s Mäori cloaks Hokimate P. Harwood Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, PO Box 467, Wellington, New Zealand ([email protected]) ABSTRACT: For the first time, scientific research was undertaken to identify the feathers to species level contained in 110 cloaks (käkahu) held in the Mäori collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa). Methods of feather identification involved a visual comparison of cloak feathers with museum bird specimens and analysis of the microscopic structure of the down of feathers to verify bird order. The feathers of more than 30 species of bird were identified in the cloaks, and consisted of a wide range of native and introduced bird species. This study provides insight into understanding the knowledge and production surrounding the use of materials in the cloaks; it also documents the species of bird and the use of feathers included in the cloaks in Te Papa’s collections from a need to have detailed and accurate museum records. KEYWORDS: Mäori feather cloaks, käkahu, cloak weaving, birds, feathers, harakeke, microscopic feather identification, barbule, nodes, New Zealand. Introduction (whatu aho rua) was used to secure attachments such as feathers, and hence was chosen for more decorative cloaks The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) (Pendergrast 1987: 14). The feathers were typically bunched houses more than 300 Mäori käkahu (cloaks), of which 110 or butted together and woven into the cloak as it was being incorporate feathers. Fully feathered cloaks such as kahu made. By using the finger twining technique of whatu, the kiwi (kiwi-feather cloaks), kahu kura (käkä-feathered or red base of the feather shaft is secured to the vertical backing cloaks) and kahu huruhuru (feather cloaks) are docu mented. muka warps (whenu) using two pairs of smaller horizontal The remaining cloaks have feathers in the borders or in weft threads (aho rua), and the feather shaft is then bent small bunches, such as in korowai (cloaks that may have back on itself to hold it in place (Te Kanawa 1992: 34). hukahuka, or two-ply flax-fibre tassels) and korowai kärure Fragments of a seventeenth-century Mäori cloak from a (cloaks with unravelling two- or three-ply flax-fibre tassels) burial site in Strath Taieri in Central Otago were first (Fig.1). Feathers were also identified in kaitaka (finely woven cloaks with täniko, or colour geometric patterns, along the described by Hamilton (1892: 487) and later discussed by borders) and pihepihe (cloaks with cylindrical flax tags) Simmons (1968: 6), who suggested that, judging from the (Pendergrast 1987). presence of weka (Gallirallus australis), albatross (family The finer Mäori cloaks found in Te Papa’s collections are Diomedeidae) and moa (order Dinornithiformes) skin generally produced by scraping the leaves of the harakeke and feathers sewn and roughly attached to the fragments, (New Zealand flax, Phormium spp.), and then weaving the cloak was a prestige item. The find also exemplifies the the resulting muka (flax fibre) to create the foundation of the change of birds and feathers used in Mäori cloaks over cloak (Pendergrast 1997: 6). The single-pair twining method time, which is seemingly dependent on the materials (whatu aho pätahi) was employed for some coarser rain cloaks available, the preferred bird species, and the knowledge, or capes, whereas the technique of double-pair twining skills and innovation of the weaver at the time of production. 126 Tuhinga, Number 22 (2011) Fig.1 Korowai kärure (cloak with unravelling flax-fibre tassels) (Te Papa ME014388). Literature documenting nineteenth- and early twentieth- collection. In addition, the origin of feathers used in century Mäori feather cloaks mentions primarily the fol low- a large number of cloaks has remained scientifically unveri- ing endemic New Zealand species: brown kiwi (Apteryx spp.), fied until now. Various publications on Mäori cloaks and New Zealand pigeon (kererü, Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae), bird lore indicate that at least 27 native and eight introduced käkä (New Zealand bush parrot, Nestor meridionalis), bird species were used in käkahu after 1800. It is currently parakeet (käkäriki, Cyanoramphus spp.) and käkäpö (night accepted that all of the cloaks with feathers studied were parrot, Strigops habroptilus) (Hiroa 1911: 84). Feathers from produced post 1800. The study and description of micro- weka and the now extinct hüia (Heteralocha acutirostris) have scopic features of feathers from New Zealand birds and a also been used in käkahu (Te Kanawa 1992: 25). From comparison of cloak feathers against identified museum bird the latter half of the nineteenth century onwards, striking skins have facilitated the identification and verification of geometric designs incorporating feathers from newly intro- the bird species used in Te Papa’s Mäori cloaks for the duced exotic birds such as peafowl (Pavo cristatus), helmeted museum’s permanent records. It also enhances our knowl- guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) and, later, pheasant edge of the avifauna utilised by Mäori, as well as how this (Phasianus colchicus) and domestic chicken (Gallus gallus var. has changed with the protection of native bird species, and domesticus) (Pendergrast 1987: 107) were sometimes mixed introduction of American and European game birds. with feathers from declining native bird species. The identification of feathers from microscopic structures Since the foundation of the Colonial Museum in 1865, Te in the down was established by American scientists like Papa’s cloak collection has grown, through gifts, loans, dona- Chandler (1916), who studied feather structure and its tions and acquisitions. Much of the information regarding taxonomic significance among birds. Day (1966) examined the origins and materials used in these items was either not feathers and hair microscopically from the gut contents of obtained or has been lost before their inclusion in the stoats in the British Isles to identify prey remains. More Identification and description of feathers in Te Papa’s Mäori cloaks 127 recently, scientists from the Smithsonian Institution have little or no morphological characters (i.e. white, black or used downy structures of feathers and comparisons with brown feathers), and feathers that required verification, the museum bird skins to identify feather remains resulting bird groups they belong to were identified by comparing from US Air Force bird strikes (Laybourne & Dove 1994). diagnostic microscopic structures. Finally, a combination Microscopic analysis of feathers has also been used to of the two techniques – microscopic characters to deter mine identify birds in textiles from international anthropological the bird order and whole-feather identification from and archaeological studies (Dove & Peurach 2002; Rogers museum skins to identify the species/subspecies – were used. et al. 2002; Dove et al. 2005). It has also been applied It was estimated that for each cloak the number of bird successfully in museum collections to infer the possible species from which feathers were obtained ranged between provenance (or geographic origins) of collection items (Dove one and eight, with an average of three different bird species 1998; Pearlstein 2010). Dove & Koch (2010) have described per cloak. The number of species, as well as the number the key diagnostic features of feathers for the major bird of individual birds used, depended on the size of the birds, groups occurring in forensic ornithology. the types of feathers used, the number of feathers butted Microscopic feather identification in New Zealand is still or bunched together, and ultimately the size and design of in its infancy. At the date of publication there is no national the cloak. microscopic reference database of the features that A list of potential bird species was prepared, and a characterise the feathers of New Zealand bird species. Fast database of feather images was created from museum skins, alternative methods requiring less accuracy have been used including species names, sex, age and colour variations (see over microscopic identification – such as studying reference Fig.2). Owing to the size and fragility of the cloak and bird collections of feathers to identify New Zealand falcon (Falco skin collections, and their location in separate buildings, it novaeseelandiae) prey remains (Seaton et al. 2008). A was logistically more suitable to use an image database to national molecular database of some New Zealand birds compare cloak feathers with birdskin images. This is has assisted in the identification of birds from their DNA for contrary to other methodologies utilised by the Smithsonian historical and conservation purposes (Shepherd & Lambert Institution, where direct comparison of unknown feathers 2008; Seabrook-Davison et al. 2009), and the identification with the skins themselves is preferred. of emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) feathers in a rare Mäori Detached feathers from bird skins were collected, and the cloak (Hartnup et al. 2009). species and feather types recorded to create a reference Microscopic analyses and DNA profiling have been database of microscopic images of the feather down, and to employed successfully to determine the origin of feathers in compare them with fallen cloak feathers. Detached cloak ethnological collections in overseas studies. Isotopic analysis feathers that had been collected and bagged over time